Ricardo Basbaum
dal 4/11/2012 al 24/11/2012
Segnalato da
4/11/2012
Ricardo Basbaum
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago
Would you like to participate in an artistic experience? What it means to experience art in an era of advanced global capitalism, where in terms such as 'the experience economy' and 'creative industries' point to the fantasy of an autonomous singular subject.
Curated by Monika Szewczyk, Visual Arts Program Curator, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.
Logan Center Exhibitions is delighted to host the first solo presentation of Ricardo Basbaum’s signature project, “Would you like to participate in an artistic experience?” in conjunction with the Logan Launch Festival and continuing through 25 November 2012.
At the heart of Basbaum’s complex and playful work is the circulation of a simple, painted metal object (pictured above), amongst users who express the desire to participate. The object derives its shape from a sign that Basbaum designed and has deployed in search of what he calls “New Bases for Personality” or NBP.*
Once it is in their hands, participants (be they individuals, groups, or institutions) define what to do with the NBP object, where it will be taken, and how their artistic experience is documented. The results are radically open – “the fruit of your own desire and effort.” Traces of this process are then uploaded to a website, which has been documenting the evolution of the project since its inception in 1994 (http://www.nbp.pro.br). Basbaum’s work offers a base—at once concrete and dynamic—for imagining the workings of our networks.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the Logan Center Gallery space
becomes a physical interface with the project. On display will be an
array of videos showing past use of the NBP object as well as a set of
diagrams that have evolved with its circulation during the past 18 years,
across 40 cities on four continents. These vast mind maps, at times
resembling psychedelic paintings, offer insights into the artist’s
changing thought-process, which is marked by acute attention to
infiltration and contamination from outside forces. One of the diagrams
remains open-ended, with parts of the wall left to accommodate
documentation of the NBP object’s use throughout Chicago.
Also present is a metal structure, which carves out a space within the
space of the gallery, almost like the circle inside the NBP object and
sign. Part sculpture, part enclosure, part resting space, Basbaum’s metal
structure facilitates the contemplation of the diagrams but remains full
of potential for other uses.
Turning a fundamental question into an artwork, Ricardo Basbaum has
devised a project about, in the artist’s words, “involving the other as
participant in a set of protocols indicative of the effects, conditions, and
possibilities of contemporary art.” In hosting the project, Logan Center
Exhibitions invites the public to take up the great challenges associated
with confronting one’s own desire, defining the terms of participation
and considering what it means to experience art today.
Media contact: Mitch Marr, Marketing Manager
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago 773.702.2997 mhmarr@uchicago.edu
Nov 5, 2012, 6pm, Performance Penthouse
Ricardo Basbaum artist’s talk, sponsored by the Open Practice
Committee (http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/opc/)
Nov 7-8, 2012, 12-5pm (exact times tbd)
Collaborative Conversation – a workshop with Ricardo Basbaum
Nov 9, 2012, 6pm, Logan Center Gallery
Reception with artist in attendance and performance of Collaborative Conversation
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
915 East 60th Street, Chicago
Hours:
Mon-Sat: 8 am-10 pm
Sun: 11 am-9 pm
Open until midnight every day with UChicago ID
Free Admission